Class Starts - April 2, 2002

On April 2nd the class started with the (5) 60 gallon tanks, an airpump and (3) grow lights. On April 3rd Class design:  During the first lab session the students designed the ecological engineered system to treat flushwater from the OSU dairy facility utilizing the above materials. Ecological mesocosms in the system included anaerobic, aerobic with vegetation, fish tank, and wetland.

Students in the course from left to right are:

Terry Stewart, Dan Gill, Kevin Duemmel, Stewart Diemont, Jason Harral, Kerry Hughes, Ryan Stokes, Becky Wigg, and Mike Rowan.  ( Julie Graf not pictured)

April 10th, the class builds their living machine. This construction was completed in (3) hours.  First the tanks were washed.

Holes were then cut into the tanks to attach hoses to allow water flow between different ecological mesocosms supported in various tanks.

Clear piping was used to connect the various mesocosms.  This is a large 2 inch diameter pipe to allow fish to swim between the two aerobic vegetative tanks.

A metal frame was hung from the ceiling to support 3 grow lights.

The wetland system was rectangular plastic box.

After 3 hours of work the students had water flowing through the entire system.  The initial retention time in each tank was estimated at 7 hours.